Above section meets with LTAM L300
Above section carries culture studies credit
This course is part one of a two-course sequence on the history of Latin
America from pre-conquest times to the present. It will survey the history
of Latin America from its first inhabitation to the republican period in
the nineteenth century. Six major themes will be addressed: the
development of the great Amerindian civilizations, and the encounter
between Europeans and Amerindians, the making of a colonial society in
Spanish America and Brazil, the struggles leading to the collapse of
colonial rule, the civil wars of independence, and the social, economic,
and political impact of independence on the new republics. The overriding
concern of this survey is to provide an understanding of how the
interaction between the different cultures that met in the Americas shaped
these colonial societies, and how some elements of this legacy persisted
and/or were contested by different social groups before and after
independence.
Readings include a textbook by Mark A. Burkholder and Lyman L. Johnson,
Colonial Latin America, an Aztec account of the conquest (The Broken
Spears), a cultural history by a Mexican writer, Carlos Fuentes, (The
Buried Mirror) and a course packet. Documentaries and films are also part
of the course materials. Students' learning will be evaluated through
three examinations.